“Minneapolis-based Sports Psychologist Dr. Justin Anderson of Premier Sports Psychology said fear is one of the biggest factors that hold back athletes from reaching their goals.

‘Fear has a lot of sub-conscious components to it,’ Anderson said. ‘If you have a fear of a spider, just a quick glimpse of something like that causes you to react and jump away from it. We’re not rationally looking at that spider and saying, ‘oh, that thing isn’t going to hurt me, it’s in the corner and not that big of a deal.’ Fear has a strong hold over our minds. A lot of folks are unaware of what their fear is. With a fear of failing…we get [athletes] to look at it rationally, like if this doesn’t work out I’m in no worse position than I am now.’